Mammography has long been used to screen for breast cancer and other abnormalities and for diagnostics. Traditionally, mammograms were formed on X-ray film, but more recently flat panel digital imagers have been introduced that acquire a mammogram in digital form and thereby facilitate analysis and storage and provide other benefits as well. Further, X-ray tomosynthesis of the breast has been proposed recently, as discussed in the earlier-filed applications identified above, and clinical testing has been carried out. The assignee of this patent specification, Hologic, Inc., has demonstrated at trade shows in this country a fused, multimode mammography/tomosynthesis system that takes either or both types of images, either while the breast remains immobilized or in different compressions of the breast.
Dedicated breast tomosynthesis systems also have been proposed. However, in clinical use it can be desirable for a number of reasons to assess both tomosynthesis images and conventional mammograms of the patient's breast. For example, the decades of conventional mammograms have enabled medical professionals to develop valuable expertise. Mammograms offer good visualization of micro-calcifications, and can offer higher spatial resolution when compared with tomosynthesis images. While tomosynthesis images provided by dedicated breast tomosynthesis systems in the art have other desirable characteristics (i.e., better visualization of structures), such systems do not leverage the existing interpretation expertise of medical professionals. In addition, the increased mobility of patient data and varied capabilities of imaging centers will require the ability to provide mechanisms that enable images to be displayed using whatever resources are available at the imaging center, without regard to the original acquisition format of the image.